The present invention relates to backup, or secondary, sump pumps which are battery powered and used to evacuate the water from the sump in the event of an emergency caused by failure of a primary sump pump. In particular, the invention relates to a protection device or column which maintains the backup sump pump free of debris and dry until the backup sump pump is needed to evacuate water from the sump.
A primary sump pump normally is powered from an electrical line bringing power from a remote power station. Often, especially in more rural areas, due to failure of power in the electrical lines during a storm, the primary pump will not be operative. At that time, the battery powered backup pump takes over the task of removing water from the sump.
Obviously, due to their nature, such backup pumps operate only infrequently. Yet, normally they will be located in the sump where they are alternately submerged in water and then free of water as the water level in the sump goes up and down as a result of the action of the primary pump. This constant bathing of the pump components and then exposing them to air can be particularly hard on the pump components and the mechanical operating condition of the pump, especially when the pump is normally standing idle, corrosively impairing pump operation and dramatically shortening its useful life. Furthermore, the water moving into and out of the backup sump pump is likely to carry with it contaminates and debris which are deposited on and in that pump or its pump screen, further impairing its operating condition. Since it is not uncommon for a power failure to occur as the result of a storm, the backup pump may become inoperative at just the very time it is needed most.
Therefore, the principal purpose of the present invention is to provide a protection device for a backup sump pump apparatus to exclude water, and any contaminates that it may carry, from the operating components of the pump during its period of inaction. There therefore will be less opportunity for those operating components to be so deleteriously affected that the pump will fail to operate when it is needed.
In accordance with the invention, the protection device for the backup sump pump apparatus is composed of an elongated, hollow guard column which surrounds the pump unit of the sump pump apparatus. The bottom portion of the guard column is closed to form a buoyant vessel, permitting the column to float as the liquid level rises in the sump. A series of openings in the form of vertical slots are located in the guard column extending upwardly from a short distance above the water line to a short distance from the top of the column. This upper part of the column fits about the pump unit to thereby guide the guard for aligned vertical movement. When liquid rises to an abnormal elevation in the sump, the bottom of the guard column strikes the bottom of the pump unit, preventing the guard column from rising any further within the sump. As the liquid level then continues to rise in the sump, liquid enters the guard column through the openings, causing the guard column to sink to the bottom of the sump and allowing the pump to be primed for subsequent pumping operation.